Outlines the principles of spiritual victory and possessing one's inheritance, drawing parallels from the Israelites' conquest of the Promised Land as recorded in the book of Joshua. It distinguishes between the 'campaign to conquer' led by God and Joshua, and the individual 'possession' of the land by the people. The sermon emphasizes that God orchestrates the overall campaign, but personal faith, obedience, and courage are required for individuals to claim their spiritual blessings. It warns against self-confidence, covetousness, and prayerlessness as causes of defeat, highlighting that true victory comes from trusting God's Word and actively pursuing the inheritance He has provided.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.52 → restored 4.62
And we just have a word of prayer together. Our loving Father, we are very thankful for thy word and the loveliness of this day and a fresh opportunity to be together. And we pray that thou would speak to our hearts, warm us, strengthen us in our light, precious faith. We pray thy blessing in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. The book of Joshua has afforded us some very simple but instruction on the idea of our victory and possessing our spiritual inheritance. We've been looking at it in a broad way, not looking at every verse or the historical detail of the names of the tribes and battles.
but primarily the key that in the beginning of the book we have the six principles for spiritual courage and strength. And then we moved into crossing the River Jordan, the lessons that were there, and the valuable lesson as we were detained before the Battle of Jericho and the opportunity for circumcision, the realization of what God has provided for us, and then a sense of deep dependence upon him. Now, between chapter six and chapter twenty-two, this is the campaign itself, and it divides itself into two sections. And what we want to have drawn to our attention, we're going to move from chapter six, just in little highlights, through the book up to chapter twenty-one.
And that broad section is going to give to us the idea of our campaign to conquer. And it's divided into two areas. Chapter six goes from chapter six up to chapter eleven. And that is the actual campaign itself. The campaign to conquer the land. Then from chapter twelve to twenty-one is the personal possession. Now there's a distinction between the two areas. And chapter six to eleven was wrought by Joshua and the Lord, working through Joshua, dealing with armies. And it's a campaign. Then individuals began to make the possession of their own personal property.
And it was individual exercises of heart. So there are two things that are running in this section. One, the idea of a campaign to conquer, and then the principles of possession, individually obtaining our inheritance. And there's a distinction. A campaign is the overall plan of the military genius for a victory in warfare. You can lose battles but win your campaign. You can lose individual conflicts but be the victor in the overall warfare. Between chapter six and eleven, we find the nation of Israel accomplishing the campaign that God laid out for them.
They conquered the Holy Land. All the property was theirs. Then there was a little respite, and the people were divided up into where they were going to live individually in the promised land. And in that division, they had individual responsibilities for the eviction of pockets of the enemy, and their own personal responsibility then to obtain what God had promised them. Now, the campaign divides itself, this overall plan of God, divides itself into three major movements. Remember, they're just about geographically in the center of the promised land, and they move westward, slightly northward, from Gilgau to Jericho to A.I.
to Gibeon. Now, this is not their design. We mustn't attribute to Joshua his individual expertise as a military man. That is written in books, but it's inaccurate. You follow the text and you'll find that it's the providential sovereignty of God overruling that draws them into this very clever pattern of conquering the enemy. And incidentally, the exact same pattern is used in almost every military battle that you have ever seen recorded historically, with very few exceptions, where there is a play in battle. The same concept that is done here is used. I'm not saying it or implying that it was drawn from this, but you see the genius of God.
What he has done, he takes the men, drives them across, divides the Holy Land or Canaan in half. Then the people in the south are apprehensive. They move northward and attack and they are drawn down and so there's a second swing downward. Divide the enemy in half, take the left flank and then take the right flank. And that was the work that was done. It was exactly in that way only God overruled. It was not the fact that Joshua sat down and laid out a plan. Now we draw this to your attention because it's God's purpose to bring you into your inheritance. And He overrulingly brings us into spiritual positions, privileges, blessings by His mighty grace and love.
He controls and He brings enlightenment and enlargement to us. But it is up to you and me to enter into the value of it, to possess it personally, to make it our own as individuals. Now, every one of these moves in the campaign, between six and eleven, those three moves, and I divide it this way, the move slightly northeast, then south, then the north, just as a little reminder. Now, that first move across, he didn't sit down, I think I will do this and do that, no. They worked on Jericho, and after Jericho, a situation arose in neighboring town A.I., And then because of that victory, people up in Gideon had a clever device, and they came down, and unwittingly, he was lured into an amalgamation with the people in Gideon, and that brought him into a place of the enemies, and the south decided, we better get together and destroy Gideon, and this whole nation of Israel, they're getting too strong.
So you see, it's God bringing them in. God has a campaign. The church has been fighting this campaign for two thousand years. And you wear the same armor as the Apostle Paul or the saints at Ephesus. You wear the same armor as John Bunyan describes in the magnificent allegory, the Holy War. Mr. Gernal in seventeen hundred approximately wrote a eight hundred and twenty page tome on Ephesians six, ten to eighteen. And he calls it the Christian in his fullness of his armor, the full Christian armor. And he has a subtitle, A Treatise on the War with Satan. eight hundred and twenty pages to describe how to fight the evil one in the complexity of spiritual realms and to stand for God.
But it isn't the fact that you dabble with spiritism. The fact of the matter is we put on the armor and we take a stand for God and we simply believe what God tells us. Ephesians or rather Hebrews eleven and verse thirty says, By faith the walls of Jericho fell. That's not the end of the sentence. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had gone round the city seven days. Faith and obedience in what? The Word of God.
Faith can most clearly and simply define, and it's done so by Mr. Hodges, and it is Systematic Theology, which is an excellent group load of three books. It's well worth your investment. You can buy them from Urgements from an average. It's about thirty dollars. Just a remarkable piece of material to put things in order in your thinking. But in that set of systematic theology, he suggests that faith is made up of three basic principle things. One, you hear the word of God and you get intelligent enlightenment. You get information from God. That's where faith begins. Information from God. And that's in an act of your feeding your intellect.
Information from God, your affections are moved and become involved in what you hear and you make decisive act of your will. in response using your affection and your whole heart to what you have heard from God. This is exactly what the children of Israel have done. They've come over and they said, this is what God wants. Well, we'll do it and we'll experience this Gilgol, this rolling away of the reproach of Egypt. Do you know what the reproach of Egypt was? In the book of Exodus in chapter thirty-two, Moses tells us that the reproach of Egypt was the smearing, sarcastic comments that the Egyptians made about the inability of Jehovah to bring his people into the promised land.
They're wandering in the wilderness. It was the Egyptians mocking God's people because of the ineffectiveness of God to bring them into their inheritance. And now they're in the land. They're in the land only on the basis because they have accepted the covenant relationship and have had the flesh cut off. And now that symbolism suggests to us that we are ashamed to God. And we expose God to the sneering criticisms of the world around because we fail. to acknowledge the cutting off of the flesh and the stepping into our great inheritance. But it's a campaign. You are conquerors. You shall ultimately win.
God has decreed it. And ultimately, every one of you whose names have been written in the Lamb's Book of Life at the foundation of the world, you came into the value of this when you trusted Christ as your Savior. You embraced these truths. You've been indwelled by the Holy Spirit. And now you're drawn out to be a conqueror, a victor. and it's inevitable for you. God will bring you along as far as the campaign is concerned. You and I become occupied with the battles. We lose a battle on Sunday and we're depressed and heavy and weakened. No, we've already been instructed. That we confess. acknowledge it and go on to weld our relationship with the Lord.
And if there is disciplinary action from the Lord as a result of that, if there's a chastening hand, it adds to welding through the scars of trial and difficulty, and it strengthens our character. You and I will not give up to the impact of the evil one, the world, the flesh, and the evil one. We will not do that. You are going to go on. You are going to hold fast. That's why you're here. And God has a plan for us, a program. And his program is that we would be victors. In the first move that was laterally through the land and dissected the land in half, that had the Battle of Jericho and Aoi. On the second battle from the south, that was the Battle of Gideon and Beth Horan.
And in the northern battle, there was a battle at the waters of Merom. With every one of the great battle movements, the three strategic movements, cutting the land in half, crushing the enemies in the south, sweeping up and attacking, everyone was done the same way. By surprise, by assault, in defense, but capturing and destroying the enemy with the direction of God by faith. We respond to the word of God. Now this may be too historical or symbolic for some of us. but I suppose maybe it's convenient for me. My mind kind of runs that way and it automatically falls in place, how there is an analogy and a practical result.
But here they go. Here is faith. Chapter six, verse fifteen, and it came to pass on the seventh day that they arose early about the dawning of the day, compassed the city after the same manner seven times. Only on that day they compassed the city seven times. And it came to pass that the seventh time when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout, for the Lord hath given you the city. Whatever armed men they had, whatever military power or tools they had, those men were put out front. Behind them were the priests with seven ram's horns.
Now we're not talking about trumpets with keys and lovely music. They weren't playing onward Christian soldiers or something like that. There were seven men and you can't blend seven horns. All it is is one note. And somebody else had the one, whatever it was. You had seven sounds blasting out. And all day long, these priests dressed in white, march around the city and behind them are the Levites carrying the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. And behind that all the people, not talking. Now how can you get thousands of people and little children not to talk. How can you do it? You can't do it here at camp. Right? During meetings people are buzzing or talking and the little children are running around and they're active. But here God says everybody's going to be in on this.
And you're all going to follow orders. And it doesn't make any sense to an intelligent being. look at that city massive walls thirty some foot high it's thick enough to have a house upon it and how can we possibly do this but we heard our affections are moved we're going to do it and they march out around blasting those horns demonstrating what folly to those around but the preaching of the gospel is indeed foolishness the preaching of the cross is foolishness to them that are unbelievers the presenting of truth to an individual it's It doesn't make any sense. To tell another child of God a simple Bible verse is he lays there in his bed and the person in the room next to him, they just don't understand.
I've had that happen. I've had a doctor come in with me in a room next to me and speak to me and pray with me and give me a share with me a Bible verse before having surgery. And it was a delightful experience. And other people come in and say, what was he doing? I saw the doctor. You know, what was he doing? Why was he doing that? It doesn't make any sense to them. But it helped the recipient to possess an inheritance. the sense of the presence and the victory and the calming and the joy from the Spirit of God. It doesn't make any sense to circle the city, but that's faith. And faith is the victory that overcomes the world. But what do we have faith in? What God says. And for that I must read it.
And I must read those Pauline epistles carefully. And not because I experience it, but I must acknowledge I don't understand at all and all the intricacies and the difference between the old man and the flesh and etc. But I know that God has judged it. And I can't tell the differences between how God uses my human personality and temperament in person without any offense to it, and yet no indignity, and yet at the same time absolutely condemns it as useless in the spiritual realm. I don't understand it, but you must believe it because it's truth. That's walking the city. That's victory. That's the kind of courage that commits yourself to what God says.
Now your brethren tell you you have a gift. and somebody has heard you speak or teach or compassionately exercise care or concern or somebody has risen up and given an exhortation and your heart has been touched and you say you have a gift of exhortation. Well, you don't have to understand it. You don't have to put exhorter on your forehead. You don't have to go around and put that on the side of your letterhead that you are now a help or a, you know, but there's no real passionate zeal on the part of God's people for the gift of help. You know, that means just being kind and supportive and coming alongside of, you know, we'd rather have other things that are a lot more splendiferous and attractive. But if we have that, believe God. Believe that's part of your inheritance.
You don't have to define why. You don't have to understand all the intricacies of its work. Just believe what God has said and do it. And as you exercise whatever God has given you to do and your function in the body of Christ, you then begin to add to the welfare of the body, the strength of the whole, the testimony is growing. And it makes no difference if you're in a company of ten people meeting in a living room or if you're with three hundred meeting in a large auditorium. It doesn't make you better to be with a three hundred or worse to be with a two. Beloved of God, we get preoccupied with those things. And I know that that's human. But as far as our inheritance is concerned, as far as the promises of God are concerned, as far as laying hold of God's things, that numerical difference or where your gift is is not the important thing.
It's that you function. It's that you believe it. It's that you make things your own. And if God speaks to your heart, we believe what he has to say to us. Now, obedience and courage, it took these people indeed. But there's a lesson in chapter seven. There was a defeat. It was one of the battles. The lesson is very simple. In chapter seven, in verse three, they returned to Joshua and said unto them, Let not all the people go up, but about two or three thousand go up and smite AI. See, once you've destroyed Jericho, well, What's AI? Little village of a few thousand people.
Send just a few soldiers in. What is that? Self-confidence. Once you've preached the gospel and God has saved the soul, you put evangelists on your letterhead and start talking about being a soul winner and telling others how to do it? No. You're very thankful that God allowed you to be there when He chose to quicken that soul and give you the joy of seeing them. Hear them confess Christ as Savior. And you go on, hopefully they'll use you again. but not self-confidence, not because you have learned something and somebody says, I never saw that truth, then suddenly we begin to think, I am a teacher, that's not the idea. It's to possess the things that God has given us, and if He chooses to use us in some realm to comfort, to strengthen, to exhort, to pour a bomb, to heal, to lead a soul, to address many, to be richly blessed, or to be humbly suffering with a cheerful heart, whatever it is, part of our possessions.
But here it was self-confidence. Don't worry about that. But self-confidence was followed by something else. Verse twenty. And Achan answered Joshua and said, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done. When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonian garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold, fifty shekels weight, I coveted them, and took them. And behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent and the silver under it. If faith and obedience and courage is the key to victory, then covetousness and selfishness, self-confidence are some of the causes of defeat.
What did he see? A Babylonian garment. So what's important about a Babylonian garment? Oh, well, this wasn't just a little old Canaanite thing. This wasn't just something that the Hittites had woven together on some loom. This was a Babylonian garment. This was a heart-shaftner marks. This is a label that was worthwhile having. This is a beautiful piece of... This garment he had never seen anything like it. And the moment his eyes fell upon that beautiful garment he had planned. Now, it might have been a very selfless thing. Wouldn't my wife look lovely in this? I don't know what its purpose is worth, but when he saw that beautiful mantle from Shinar, When he saw from that great capital where the dyes were made and the fabric was woven and there can be actual pieces of metal or gold or all the intricacies of embroidery, his lustful desire for gain for himself, for something that he could have, the Babylonian garment.
Of course, we all know what the silver and gold means. The cares of this world, sometimes struggling to get your inheritance in mind, is a little bit of a hardship, isn't it? Sometimes you feel like you've spent too much money on the things of the Lord, and you've taken off the top a large portion to give to the work of the Lord, and then you've heard of a needy one, and you don't seem to have enough for yourself, and you try to live modestly, so you're able to invite others in and fellowship with them. And the temptation is when you see something of this world's good, that you lean toward it. But it could also be... just a very broad principle he's trying to put into our minds that if I'm going to get into the campaign and be successful in the battle, it's going to require that I not think about myself in the battle, that I think about the welfare of others, for there's only one man that did it, one soldier, but they lost the battle of A.I.
and when they did attack them, you know how they had to do it? Just as a humbling lesson. You go up, surround the city, and then lure them out as you fall backwards and then retreat. And as you retreat by the people of AI, I think, well, we've conquered them again, we've beat them again, now we'll just clean up on them, and in your retreat, then you'll be able to set an ambushment, and a few men will come up out of the ravines on either side of the valley in which AI is, and then you'll come in and attack, and then you'll be able to clean the city up. Kind of a humbling experience for the people who destroyed Jericho, isn't it? Humility, dependence upon God. We can't depend upon advertisement and programs and special music and things like that, although they are very interesting and good supports.
We can't depend upon just having a gifted spokesman who maybe has been used of God at some other time. We must really depend upon the Lord. His is a campaign to bring us into inheritance and blessing, and we need to have a simple, humble dependence upon Him. Faith, obedience, courage, and, and we have pointed up to this, another frailty. Chapter nine and verse fourteen. After conquering AI, after conquering AI, the Gibeonites realized that this is a very strong company of people, and they better go down and try to favor them.
You know the story. I assume that they've dressed themselves in old clothes, sent emissaries, dried, moldy bread. They come to themselves. We've been on the road for a long while. We've heard of the greatness of your God and we'd like to be on your side. They say, that's fine. That's a wonderful thing. Glad for that. They didn't realize where they were from. But in verse fourteen we read, and the men took of their vitals and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord. prayerlessness. The causes for defeat in the campaign of God to bring us into our inheritance are simply in this story is the first one, self-confidence. Second, personal covetousness. Third, prayerlessness. God brings them up.
They identify with them. They see the needs of the men in Gideon. They attack Gideon, Gideon rather, excuse me. And that is a monstrous battle. It divides a nation in half. The people in the south attack and they're drawn down in their retreat into the south. So they say, well, let's keep right on going and clean out the south. And they do exactly that. And the rest of this chapter, chapter nine and ten, gives us that battle and the conquering. And then in verse forty-three at the end of chapter ten, and Joshua returned. and all Israel with him. This is after the southern battle now, onto the camp to Gilgal, to the place where they suffered weakness and frailty and dependence upon God. Tremendous victories in the south, but come back to Gilgal, come back to the rolling away of the reproach of Egypt, come back to the realization that I'm only doing what God wants me to do to possess this inheritance and help God's people to get into their spiritual blessings.
You are doing a great work if you help your spouse or your children to be interested in their spiritual inheritance. You are doing a grand work by demonstrating in your life your enjoyment of spiritual things and wetting the appetite. I saw a change in an older brother of mine, a brother with whom I regularly fought. a brother that I just had a distant relationship with. But when he came back from the service, he'd been to some school up in Canada at that time, and he'd studied the Word of God for three years. And when he came back, there was a change in him. And he began to speak to me in a different way. He began to talk about the things of God.
And my how that stirred, my youthful spirit, that I knew that something had happened in him, and it was well worthwhile going after. I had a sister who talked to me about the things of God. She was much older than I. She was like a mother. My sister was as old as my wife's mother. And yet she would talk to me about the Word of God and something that she saw. And I didn't understand it, but how it whetted my appetite to understand. An aunt gave me a set of books, and the first book I ever read in my life was CHN's Notes on Leviticus. I read that thing. I thought this was astounding that God's word would have so many interesting things and in so many word pictures and it meshed in my mind and it was just food for my soul.
And I am indebted to those persons for that little bit of encouragement to start your inheritance. What are you doing for others? Do you ever buy any of the books up there to give to your elders? To give to the young gifted men? You see a woman that's got some exercises of heart. Do you spend? It doesn't take a lot. Sometimes it's just a little booklet or tracklet formed, but little aid, little encouragement. why we've had such a delight in seeing young men and women come back to our home and express such pleasure in just being able to come and sit and talk about the Lord and get a little thought and to have a little cup of tea or ice cream or something like that thrown into, but it's food for the soul. We are working and battling together.
There's much that we can do for one another's encouragement. The campaign is to conquer, and you are a conqueror. Ultimately, supremely, you will be the conqueror. And God wants to help you then to be the possessor in between time. And this begins in chapter thirteen. Now in chapter thirteen... We've had in chapters six to eleven the basic idea of the campaign to conquer. Then the land has rest. You notice at the end of chapter eleven, and the land rested from war. Now the property is divided up. And individual families are going to have to go out and get a hold of their property. They've been brought into the place of blessing by the grace and the power of God.
This victory is theirs. Supernatural. Five amalgamated confederacies come up from the south and they attack and at Beth Horan, what happens? They are dynamically overwhelmed with a sudden attack from AI and Jericho. Up comes the nation of Israel. They attack them, they flee, and God kills them with hailstones. Now, is that something to their military prowess? No. But it's God's way of showing, I am on your side. This is a campaign to conquer. You are going to possess spiritual things. What a tremendous privilege and blessing. But I have my responsibility. And that's demonstrated in a few little ways here. In chapter thirteen, verse six says, all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon.
Now see the distinction between here and the end of chapter twenty-one. It's individuals now, their own personal property. It's not just this broad perspective, but now it's down to the routine of individual life. And so the tone changes a little bit. And the first principle of possession is we possess by God's command. You have the assurance. God says in the middle of verse six, I will drive out from before the children of Israel, only divide it thou by lot unto the Israelites for an inheritance as I commanded thee. You have an inheritance. And God wants you to have it. Now you have to believe that. And when you start reading and living, say, Lord, I want my inheritance.
If I am a priest, help me to be a priest. Teach me what it is to bring to God offerings. Help me to understand the work of Christ in a great way that I can worship and praise and bring glory to you and stagger the minds of principalities and powers, even if my brethren and sisters won't even say amen. You're a priest. That's your inheritance. move into the area and serve him with dignity. You serve who? Minister unto the Lord, serving him with worship and praise and offering. Tremendous dignity. You have this inheritance by the decree of God. You have it. By God's command so enter into it and make it your own then if you would in chapter fourteen it's altogether different perspective here is old Caleb and he comes to Joshua not a touch of animosity not a touch of competitiveness no distrust no irritation at all he says Joshua I am as healthy and strong now as I was when I went into the promised land more than forty years ago eighty-five years old and he wants to be spiritual eighty-five years old and he wants to get an inheritance A five years only wants to go to war.
I don't know many people like that, but I know a lot at sixty-five that retire from everything. And some that have early retirement retire from everything also. But not Caleb. It's ours by command. And he doesn't care. He goes to him, and he says, in verse eleven, as I am as strong as I was in the day that Moses sent me. My strength was then, even so was my strength now, for war, both to go out and to come in. Now, therefore, give me this mountain. Isn't that delightful? This is a property I want, a mountaintop, where I can be up close to God and fight my way all the way up the mountain. I want this beautiful property.
This is by faith. It's an interesting thing, and just an aside, that when Joshua dies, he's old and infirmed. And Caleb at eighty-five is as strong as he was back when there were young men going into the land. Why? Leadership takes a tremendous toll. Real concern, not to administrate people, but real godly leadership takes a tremendous toll on the spirit and the soul. Remember, the care... of persecution and perils and he goes all the way through the long list and then at the end of second Corinthians eleven he said and above all this the care of the churches that's what took the toll it's a burden for a man's soul to take on the role of leadership and do it the way God concerns us like a shepherd heart so he has the faith and Joshua blessed him and gave unto Caleb the son of Jefuneh, Hebron for an inheritance and it became the inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jesse and of the Kenazite.
And to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel. You see, these are individuals. Individuals that are now possessing their inheritance. The campaign is sure. They're conquerors. Now, we want to go in and make it all our own. Simply, it's God's command. Secondly, we do it by faith. And thirdly, we do it by request. Caleb wants to reward with the marriage of his daughter. And Caleb says, He the sleight of Kyrgyz Sefer, and takeeth it, to him I will give Aixim my daughter to wife. Othniel, the son of Keene, is the brother of Caleb. Remember him, he's going to come up as a great leader in the book of Judges, the first of the deliverers of the nation of Israel.
Here's an opportunity for an inheritance and a possession, and you can also win this lovely wife of this godly man. And he says, I'll do it, I'll take it. He conquers the enemy. But you notice the kind of woman that she is. And she is going to be sure she gets a good inheritance. And it came to pass in verse eighteen that she came unto him and she moved him to ask of her father a field. And she lighted off her ass and Caleb said unto her, What woods thou? Who answered, Give me a blessing. For thou hast given me a south land. Give me also springs of water, upper and nether springs. And this is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah. Her family was blessed, the tribe enriched.
Why? Because here's a woman that not only wanted and believed that she could have an inheritance in a beautiful flatland where she could grow or feed or flocks or whatever, but she says, I want water too. Upper and nether springs. I want something rich and flowing. Is that your spirit? Do you look at the word of God and the things of God and say, oh Lord, I want something rich? flowing, satisfying, that out of our being will flow rivers of living water, and all will be blessed, and our children after us will be enriched because of our godly possession of our inheritance. That's a nice, delightful anticipation. Chapter seventeen and verse fourteen, the children of Joseph spake unto Joshua saying, Why hast thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit?
Oh my. There's always people like this. Ephraim and Manasseh were blessed by Jacob. They're the children of Joseph. And Ephraim and Manasseh had an unusual experience. You must read about it. We don't have the time. But it confused Joseph. But it flattered one of them. And one of them, being younger, saying they were going to be the blessed, they were a problem to God's people for the rest of their lives. Because they're always thinking, I'm supposed to be the one that's blessed. I'm supposed to be the one that's good. And there's always people like this amongst God's people. Who don't want something because it belongs to the Lord and for blessing. It's just because I'm more important.
How come I only get one portion? How come I only get this? And a soft answer turns away wrath. And that's wise. But there's other ways to turn away this kind of an attitude too. And notice what Joseph, Joshua says. Joshua answered them, If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, cut down for thyself there in the land of the Parazis and of the giants of Mount Ephraim to be too narrow for thee. And if the children of Joseph said, the hill is not enough for us, all the Canaanites that dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both they who are of the shemen and their towns, and all they are the valley of Jezreel. And Joshua spoke unto the house of Joseph, even to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, Thou art a great people, and hast great power, only thou shalt not have one lot only, but the mountain shall be thine.
If you've got the strength, cut it down and conquer it. Don't look for somebody else and for special attention. If you've got the exercise of heart, separate yourself from the rest. Get a grander portion. Possessive. But the whole idea, beloved of God, is that now the responsibility rolls back upon you. Individually. You're going to be a conqueror. You have an inheritance. God will give you the faith through His Word. Now use it and make spiritual things real. Listen as the Spirit of God ministers to us from the book of Hebrews. Heed the warnings. Feed our soul. Get the word pictures.
Allow them to linger in our mind. And the next portion of Scripture we come to, let it be our prayer, O Lord, open my eyes, I might behold, wondrous things from out of thy law. Feed my soul. Make me your own.